Os Dois Caretas

Go Go Gophers had its good points and bad points.

The good points were the outstanding voicework of Kenny Delmar (A Total Television staple who voiced The Hunter, Baldy the Eagle and Commander McBragg), Sandy Becker, the former local New York kids show host and George S. Irving, who used a deeper voice than his narration for Underdog. There was also the outstanding theme song that went "Go Go Gophers, watch them go go go."

The bad points were that the plots were rather repetitive. In each episode Colonel Kit Coyote and Sergeant Okey Homa tried to drive the Indians out of Gopher Gulch, but each time they failed. That's why the show is best enjoyed as a five minute segment instead of a full half hour show. As for the other segment Klondike Kat, the plots were also repetiitious but the writing was really bad, relying so much on catch phrases like "I'll make mincemeat out of that mouse! Savoir Faire is everywhere! and Klondike Kat always gets his mouse!"

The production company for "Go Go Gophers" and "Underdog" is Total Television Productions or TTV, and not Terrytoons. FYI. Total Television also produced "Tennessee Tuxedo and his Tales", "The Beagles" and "King Leonardo and his Short Subjects". Some of the short subjects that appeared on TTV shows include "The World of Commander McBragg", "Klondike Kat", "The Hunter", "The Singalong Family", "Tooter the Turtle". Some people confuse TTV with Jay Ward ("Rocky and Bullwinkle") as the segments for both shows were sometimes interchanged when the series went into syndication, but this is also erroneous. Currently, the TTV properties (as well as Jay Ward's) are owned by Classic Media. Terrytoons produced shows like "Mighty Mouse", "Deputy Dawg" and "The Mighty Heroes" among others...

A pair of gophers (substituting for Native Americans) confounded the plans of two dogs (military officers at a fort) that tried to catch them week after week on the show. The episodes were short, and were originally shown as part of other Terrytoon shows such as "Underdog" and "Tennessee Tuxedo".

The cartoon is about the Go Go Gophers, two American Indians who live in Gopher Gulch, one who speaks English and the other doesn't. One Colonel Coyote, a Teddy Roosevelt type, is an idiot overly dependent on his rule book, and his purpose is to clear out the Gophers from Gopher Gulch with his US military force. As might be expected, no matter what he tries or what he uses, the Gophers always outwit and defeat him. His sergeant is in on the joke, telling the audience to wait for the next adventure, implying that the same story will be told.

My mother saw it and asked what the real Indians thought of the show. It was produced during the 1960's, a subversive time from a subversive cartoon studio. Yes, it was meant to mock the Westerns that were still made in that era, and the Indian characters were like the prey who could never be defeated, like Jerry Mouse of the Tom and Jerry cartoons. Forget modern-day junk like Disney's Pocahontas or Dances With Wolves, which the Indians themselves laugh at. This is more like how the real Indians were.

I'm extra sensitive to cultural stereotypes of old. I'm always dismayed at the pre-"Josie Wales" westerns where the "bad-guy" American- Indians are merely white actors in greasepaint, and broad portrayals of Eastern-Asians is especially unacceptable. I'm thinking here of things like Mickey Rooney in "Breakfast at Tiffany's". Really degrading stuff....

I only bring that up to bolster my claim that I don't find GGG particularly anti-American-Indian. I don't get the sense that the gophers are the last SURVIVING members of a tribe, merely the lone occupants of Gopher Gulch. I think that GGG properly casts the Army as being on the wrong side of things in the 'Westward expansion', and being completely idiotic and misguided. The gopher Indians are always smarter and quicker, and always win. Seems more like a vindication of history, in a tiny, cartoony way. History was commonly being challenged and re-thought in the 60's, and I think that revisionist spirit infuses the show. I'll concede that the chief's speech IS a bit stereotypical.....the voice-work overall is great though.

I was born in 1968, and enjoyed GGG (and the excellent Underdog show) quite a bit, as a child. When I saw the GGG DVD, I bought it, and it's one of my 3-year-old daughter's favorites, and one of the shows that I can watch with her, and both of us enjoy. Sometimes, when we're away from home, out somewhere, I'll ask her "What does Colonel Kit Coyote say?", to which she'll respond "Bully! Bully!", in her best, tiny-voiced imitation. That's one of those golden intersections of nostalgia and parental love that makes me smile. My daughter (and one- year-old son) WILL grow up with memories of the whole Underdog crew, even if none of their peers in school know what they are talking about.